How do you choose a pharmacy? Well, if you are like most people in Georgia, you choose the one closest to work or home, or you choose the one you feel is the cheapest.  We take great care in choosing our doctors, but selecting the pharmacist who dispenses our medication is quite a different story.  Perhaps we should be more careful because pharmacy error is more common than one might think.

Over 1.3 million medication errors are reported each year. Many more go unreported. Sadly, almost 100,000 people die every year from prescription errors, making medication errors the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.

The following example shows just how easily pharmacy errors can occur and how grave the resulting injuries can be: It is Monday morning, usually the busiest time for this Atlanta, Georgia pharmacy, and this particular pharmacy is understaffed. The overloaded pharmacist hands a mother a bottle of pills that was supposed to contain Ritalin—a drug prescribed to control her 10 year-old daughter’s hyperactivity.  Neither the pharmacist nor the pharmacy technician has time to check to ensure that the bottle contains the correct medication. Unfortunately, the bottle contains a diabetes drug at 16 times the adult dosage. After taking the medication, the little girl collapses into a coma and suffers permanent brain damage.

Common examples of pharmacy malpractice include:

   
• Filling the prescription with the wrong dosage
   
• Filling the prescription with the wrong medication
   
• Providing the wrong usage directions
   
• Allowing a technician to perform the work of a pharmacist
   
• Labeling errors
   
• Failure to check for potential drug interactions
   
• Failure to adequately counsel the patient

Many pharmacy errors result in serious injuries and large amounts of damages such as medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, and a diminished quality of life. In addition, the spouse of an injured person may be entitled to be compensated for their “loss of consortium” -- the loss that occurs when a spouse is injured and the other spouse loses their companionship, services, and marital relations.

If you or a family member has been injured or killed due to suspected pharmacy malpractice, you are entitled to be fully compensated. At Fleming Law, P.C., we work hard to get you all that you are entitled to under the law.

If you would like to discuss your case in confidence with an experienced Georgia malpractice lawyer, call Fleming Law, P.C. at (404) 923-7497 or contact us online. We are here to help.